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More info?)
I'm a level 37 mage, and I also have been building my talents towards the
31/20 Arcane/Fire spec, and one of the most regular comments I get from my
guildmates are: Wow you're levelling up fast!
So yeah I agree with mikel
"mikel" <mikel@evins.net> wrote in message
news:1sbpe.903$Z44.570@newssvr13.news.prodigy.com...
> Trooper wrote:
> > Morning
> >
> > I've been busy over the weekend and now have a L12 mage to play with on
> > my PvP server. Most mages seem to be fire or arcane, but i'd like my
> > mage to be ice based.
> >
> > Am I going to hamper myself by going this route from the start?
> > Currently I can pretty much handle 2 (maybe 3 if they are a level or
> > two down) equal level mobs with a bit of luck and using frost nova and
> > distance, along with frost bolt. For a single mob I can usually take
> > them down just as they reach me by using a succession of frost bolts,
> > using a fireball always results in them getting a few hits on me before
> > they die as they can close the distance much quicker.
> >
> > Any tips for a purely ice mage, apart from don't do it
>
> I know some stuff.
>
> I have a level 60 mage and a level 27 mage. With the level 60 I
> experimented with a number of different builds during his life. He was
> my first character that got really a lot of play time, so at first my
> choices were sort of random, unguided by any strategy.
>
> Along about level 37 or so I did a couple runs with a mage who was
> heavily invested in the Frost tree, and he was very effective. I also
> knew another mage who was similarly invested in Fire. I got curious
> about what it would be like to invest heavily in Arcane, which I hadn't
> seen done. So I rebuilt.
>
> Right away, I saw a dramatic improvement in my PVE performance--about
> like gaining a level. That's not to say Arcane is best--just that it's
> better to organize your talent build than to build it randomly.
>
> I played him that way all the way up to 60, and had a lot of fun with
> it. At 60, though, I was having considerable trouble soloing elites, and
> after a friend saw a 56 or 57 warlock solo Volchan, I got curious to see
> if I could improve my performance against elite mobs. So I rebuilt as a
> Frost mage, with 48 points in frost, and 3 in Arcane, just because I ran
> out of things to spend them on in Frost.
>
> With that build, I could definitely solo *much* better, especially
> against melee units. Once I had developed a little skill, I could even
> solo certain of the very high level elite mobs, such as the 60+ demons
> in Winterspring, as long as they were melee units and as long as I was
> equipped to maintain my mana. My strategy was basically hit-and-run.
> Frost gives you very flexible tools for limiting a mob's mobility, and I
> was able to kill formidable melee mobs by slowing or stopping them every
> few seconds, and putting distance between me and them to throw (very
> cheap) forstbolts that did okay damage.
>
> As someone else said, it didn;t work so well against high level mobs
> that could heal. Basically, in fighting many of those, I would run out
> of mana before they ran out of life.
>
> Also, it was no good against powerful high-level casters. With them,
> slowing and stopping them didn't help at all, because it didn't stop
> them from killing me in a few hits.
>
> It was great in high-level instances, though. Especially, a fully
> built-out Frost mage's Blizzard is a wonder to behold, slowing a whole
> group of mobs to 25% speed and doing lots of damage.
>
> After a long time of living happily with the Frost build, I just wanted
> to try something new. So I did some reading, and found a 31/20
> Arcane/Fire build that was described as good for PVP and as producing a
> lot of damage. Intrigued, I rebuilt that way and tried it out. I liked
> it well enough that I have kept it for some time. I might go back to
> Frost at some point, if I get tired of Arcane/Fire, but I have no
> particular plans to do so. So far it's lots of fun.
>
> The up-front damage, that is, the damage you can do in the first few
> seconds of a fight, is much higher with this build than weith Frost. For
> example, when farming mobs for goodies, my typical opening attack is
> like this:
>
> Arcane Power (+35% spell damage for 15 seconds)
> Pyroblast
> Presence of Mind (Next timed cast becomes instant)
> Fireball
> Fire Blast
>
> This is a lot of damage in the first 8 seconds. When the talent-based
> stun proc hits several times, you can take down formidable opponents
> before they have a chance to reach you. I tried it out in PVP, and it
> was great, as advertised. If you can get the jump on an opponent, you
> can often kill them before they realize what's happening. And in an
> emergency, the reflex of casting Presence of Mind + sheep can get you
> out of some sticky situations (assuming, of course, that you survive the
> first second or two so you have a chance to cast).
>
> Recently, I decided I wanted a level 60 mage on a PVP server, because I
> had some characters there, and I found the PVP play there both more
> available and more challenging there. So I created a new undead mage on
> a PVP server I was already playing on. I chose Undead, though my first
> mage was a gnome, because, firstly, I was already playing Horde
> characters on that server, and secondly, I wanted to take advantage of
> some of the Undead racial benefits, notably immunity to being sheeped,
> and limited immunity to Fear, Sleep, and Charm effects.
>
> My previous reading had advised that a mage while leveling go for the
> 31/20 Arcane/Fire build, but start out by building the 20 Fire. That;s
> what I have done, and the results so far are very satisfactory. I am
> able to level quickly by grinding mobs a few levels above me (more than
> 3 levels and any mage starts to have significant trouble with resists).
> In the early part of the talent build, the large damage benefits from
> the Fire tree are very satisfying. You can kill very fast.
>
> What would I advise? Well, I think that's revealed by what I have done
> with the second mage: build Fire first, then add Arcane talents that
> increase your damage output (for example, do what it takes to get Arcane
> Power).
>
> Once you reach 60, you can rebuild however you want to try it out, but
> my experience has been that the best builds I've made are all Frost (for
> supreme defense, instance support, and AOE damage in group PVP) and
> 31/20 Arcane/Fire (for best offense and most effective PVP for 1-on-1
> and small group fights). Frost gives you a lot of control over enemy
> mobility. Arcane/Fire gives you outstanding rapid offensive damage.
>
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